Hot Mix Asphalt Technology - March/April 2008 - (Page 17)

Top-Notch Teams continued asphalt materials, good subcontractors, good inspectors—just a lot of good people on the job, from the laborers to the project management. We had quality. When you surround yourself with quality, it all tends to come together in the end,” said Spray. HMAT May Lou Jay is a freelance writer living in Timonium, Md. Sheldon G. Hayes Competition. Close As Usual. This year’s competition was extremely close, and only a few points separated the winner, ﬁnalists, and semiﬁnalists. The winner and ﬁnalists for the Sheldon G. Hayes Award are determined through a two-year process. Highway pavement projects using more than 50,000 tons of HMA are eligible for consideration. Initially, they must win a Quality in Construction (QIC) Award, which is determined by numerical scores given by pavement engineers at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) on the basis of how well the contractor met the speciﬁcations and achieved density on the ﬁnished pavement. All the pavements that meet a benchmark ﬁgure are given the QIC Award. The year after a project wins a QIC Award, it may be considered for the Sheldon G. Hayes Award. The top-ranked projects from each year are tested for smoothness, then visually inspected by an independent pavement consultant with many years of experience in the industry. The evaluators praised this year’s winner and ﬁnalists for their high-quality construction practices, which resulted in smooth, safe, and durable pavements. Fi li t Venture Corp., Great Finalist: V t Bend, Kan. Coordinating equipment and paving crews is a challenge for any project, but Venture Corp. faced a particularly difﬁcult situation when it was working on Highway 383 in Decatur County, Kansas. To meet project deadlines, it had to move both crews and equipment several times from another location 60 miles for just a few days. The company milled the entire 7.31 miles of the project, adjusting depths because of the pavement’s distressed condition. But 1 mile of the road that ran through a small town needed complete reconstruction. To keep trafﬁc disruption to a minimum, Venture Corp. completed this work in four phases, deconstructing and rebuilding each section before moving on to the next. But the asphalt plant, the equipment, and the crews it needed to use for paving each section were 60 miles away at another job site. So each time one section of the road was ready to pave, Venture Corp. brought the equipment and crews to this site from the other job for several days. It also hauled the asphalt from the portable plant 60 miles away. “Being able to get the equipment and the people moved in a timely manner and being able to complete each phase on time was the biggest challenge,” said Chris Spray, Venture Corp.’s vice president of ﬁeld operations. “It’s very tough to coordinate a job like this, particularly since it’s about 200 miles away from our home base. But despite the difﬁculties, we never missed a beat on either job.” Once the paving at the other job was completed, Venture Corp. brought the HMA plant to the Highway 383 project full time, taking just 20 days to complete the work on the other sections of the road. The entire project took about two months, and Venture Corp. earned 97 percent of all available air void, density, and smoothness bonuses. The road carries an average of 1,000 vehicles per day with over half of it truck trafﬁc. “We had good production, good Hot Mix Asphalt Technology – MARCH/APRIL 2008 • 17

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hot Mix Asphalt Technology - March/April 2008

Hot Mix Asphalt Technology - March/April 2008 Contents Chairman’s Commentary Industry News Top-notch Teams Overcome Obstacles to Build the Nation’s Finest Roads Ecological Award Winners: Environmentally Sound, Neighbor Friendly Safety Award Winners: Rewards, Reminders and Technology Roadway Safety Program Trains Workers Preventing Back-overs Is Serious Business Driving Through Work Zones: Be Careful! San Diego Uses Porous Asphalt Lots for Stormwater Management Legislative Messages Tools for the Trade Calendar of Events Index of Advertisers Advertiser.com NAPA Roadmap to CONEXPO-CON/AGG

Hot Mix Asphalt Technology - March/April 2008

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